Chicago's Chrissy Camba dishes about Top Chef

October 31, 2012|By Michell Eloy | Tribune Reporter

(Handout/Bravo)

Fans of Bravo's Top Chef can breathe a sigh of relief: Padma Lakshmi and crew are back. The 10th season of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning show is set to kick off on Nov. 7, this time in Seattle. And among the group of 21 cheftestants battling for the title is Chicago's Chrissy Camba, the ex-Vincent head chef who was recently picked to run the kitchen at the soon-to-open Bar Pastoral. With the premiere just a week away, we talked with Camba about her time on the show and what we can expect from her at her new job.

What was your reaction to being named one of the contestants on the 10th season of Top Chef?Shock. I imagine it’s what people feel like when they win the lottery. You literally pinch yourself; it’s that kind of happy moment. I felt that way for a very long time. Sometimes I even thought I was making it up in my head, and I’d have to tell my self, ‘No, you’re actually going to be on the show.’”

Top Chef has a notoriously strict non-disclosure clause. How did you keep the news from getting out?I’m really bad with secrets, so I became a recluse. I go to the farmers market every week, and I stopped going. I wouldn’t hang out with people. I pretty much just kept to myself. Before I found out I was a contestant, my plan was to go to Europe and work on farms and learn about the land over there, so I had to put that off, but that’s where I told people I was.

There are some stories about former contestants writing fake emails to friends and family to make their cover stories more plausible. Were there any strange things you had to add credit to your European excursion story?Before I left, I told people, ‘I barely get reception in Chicago, so I most likely won’t get service in Europe.’ But people would often ask where I was going in Italy, and I had to be very general to a point where sometimes I would think of the places the Olive Garden mentions in its commercials.

Was there ever a point where it almost slipped out?No, but sometimes conversations would get awkward, and I’d just make something up, like ‘oh, I’m running really late! Got to go!’ I am such a bad liar. I can’t look people in the eye when I’m lying, and I mumble a lot. But apparently people bought it.

How did your coworkers and relatives react when it was announced that you were a contestant?They were very excited. Everyone was really happy for me. The first question I always got was ‘Did you win?’ which, obviously, I can’t talk about. And the second question was ‘So you weren’t in Italy?’ Keeping the secret pretty much tore me up inside. I never lie. I hate lying. It was eating away at me. I kept thinking, ‘When is this going to be announced so I can stop being a hermit like Earnest Hemmingway.’

On the show, you’re competing against some of the best chefs in the nation. How did you prepare for that?I didn’t, actually. I figured that I became a contestant because of what I was already doing. I didn’t feel like I should change that aspect of me. I did memorize some baking stuff, like how to make custards, cakes, butter creams, but that was pretty much it. I memorized a lot of stuff in my head. In college I crammed a lot, so it was kind of back to that mentality.

You’ve worked and staged at some of Chicago’s big name restaurants (Vincent, Avenues, Blackbird, Alinea). Do you feel like that gave you a leg up on the competition?Not really. Everyone is just so talented and good at what they do. What I tried to do is just not compare myself. It is intimidating, but you have to push that aside. Otherwise, it starts to turn into one of those mental games.

What aspects of the Chicago food scene do you feel helped you the most during the competition?I’ve only been cooking for about five or six years, but in that time the Chicago food scene has exploded. There are so many good restaurants and great chefs here that even just eating and occasionally staging helped me. Eating the food was just as helpful.

With cameras around all the time and complete isolation from the pretty much everything going on in the outside world, how’d you stay grounded?I made a lot of jokes. Laughter saved my life. There is this video on Bravo’s website where a chef shows you how to do something. My bit was about peeling an orange. I started doing these weird voices in the middle of it and laughing a lot. Just doing things like that.

Was there anything that surprised you during the filming?I was definitely surprised by how nice my fellow contestants were. I watched the show last season, and it seemed like everyone was at each other’s throat.